Analysis 2 "In the name of God, My Father I fly. . .'

The Flight of Icarus by Gabriel Picart.

A young man flies under the sun on failing wings.  He is only clad in a cloth wrapped around his waist and the fabricated wings.  His body is arranged in the classic crucifix position with his head cocked back hinting at the fact that the painting is done from a perspective under the model instead of in front of it. This would mean that the artist would be "on the ground looking up" to capture the angle on the model.  Yet the way the body is arranged, the shadows cast on his body, and the lack of depth applied to anything other than the body gives the illusion that we are facing the body as it flies in front of the sun.  This gives both an implied angle, and a perceived angle on the model in the painting.  Regardless of the angle, the painting is an interpretation of the Icarus myth. The sun is painted with a brass and gold feel, where the wings have more of an egyptian style, the body is painted in a more modern or renaissance style, and the cloth looks like it might be real.  Each aspect feels like it is done in a slightly different style, like different images layered on top of each other, like a combination of pre-existing art compiled.

To take a semiotic reading of the painting, one must first define the over all signifier.  The painting is that of the greek myth Icarus; a boy who, in the attempt to escape the labyrinth, flew to close to the sun on wax wings.  Icarus being the signifier signifies the story of the labyrinth simply by trying to explain the image and its significance.  Yet he also symbolizes two major ideals of the west, freedom and science (or at least the courage to invent and explore).  The two concepts are semiotically linked with Icarus because it is his lust for freedom and his curiosity that inevitably leads to his end.  His father was the one to craft the wings, but it was the boy that took off in the glory of flight and died do to his inability to head his father's warning.  So now Icarus has another signified meaning, he is a tale of caution.  The phrase "flew to close to the sun" is a warning, it signifies those that in their haste, curiosity, pride, or irrelevance to the law chose to defy the natural order and paid for the cause.  Those trying to play "God" are seen as flying to close to the sun, are seen as modern day Icarus.  The painting can signify both the need to be cautious, and the want to fly and explore.  Flight itself signifies freedom in the American conscious,  the painting can then serve as a warning to America; beware of your freedoms because they can be used to destroy you.

" . . . His eyes seem so glazed, as he flies on the wings of a dream. Now he knows, his father betrayed, now his wings turn to ashes, to ashes his grave." Iron Maiden- Flight of Icarus


Saussure. "Course in General Linguistics." ed. Leitch, Vincent B. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2010. Print.